Creating and
Experiencing
the Arts

The Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics (MPIEA) investigates why and how people create art and how they perform, experience, and evaluate it. The Institute’s focus is on music, but we also engage with other performing arts such as dance and film.

The MPIEA explores the underlying genetic, biological, and psychological processes that underlie the production and perception of art, as well as their interaction with the cultural, social, and historical factors and functions of aesthetic practices and discourses.

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News

Bruno S. Frey was the guest speaker at this year's Fechner Lecture at the institute in Frankfurt am Main.

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Between the Shelves: Talking about Works, Thoughts, and Experiences Related to Aesthetics

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Events

1st Annual Conference on Aesthetic Development

Understanding Aesthetic Development
1st Annual Conference on Aesthetic Development on November 7, 2024

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Library Talks: The Emergence of Jungle in the 1990s

Between the Shelves: Talking about Works, Thoughts, and Experiences Related to Aesthetics

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Latest Studies

(Musikalische) Einschlafrituale für Kinder

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Eine Studie über Musik und das motorische System

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Departments

Music

Director: Prof. Dr. Melanie Wald-Fuhrmann

Using a variety of methods, the Department of Music researches the processing, experiencing and evaluation of music, as well as behaviour during its reception.
 

Cognitive Neuropsychology

Director: Prof. Dr. Fredrik Ullén

The Department of Cognitive Neuropsychology investigates the neuropsychological mechanisms of musical expertise, skill learning and creativity, as well as relations between cultural engagement, well-being and health.

 

Research Groups

Histories of Music, Mind, and Body

Dr. Carmel Raz

The "Histories of Music, Mind, and Body" Research Group seeks to historicize specific philosophical, embodied, and medical understandings of the experience of music.

 

Computational Auditory Perception

Dr. Nori Jacoby

Focusing largely on the auditory modality, the "Computational Auditory Perception" Research Group explores the roles of experience and exposure in creating and affecting our perception of the world.
 

Neurocognition of Music and Language

PD Dr. Daniela Sammler

The Research Group “Neurocognition of Music and Language” explores perceptual, cognitive, and expressive similarities and differences between music and language, as well as their neural grounding and links with aesthetics.

Neural Circuits, Consciousness, and Cognition

Prof. Lucia Melloni, PhD

The Research Group Neural Circuits, Consciousness, and Cognition seeks to understand why some experiences feel the way they do (consciousness) and how such experiences are imprinted on our brain (learning and memory).